Bohemian Rhapsody

Description

Brian May/Roger Taylor-Produced Soundtrack To Record Breaking Queen Biopic Featuring Previously Unreleased Performances At Live Aid Plus New Versions Of Old Favorites & Choice Selection Of Finest Studio Recordings!

For the first time ever audio tracks fromQueen’slegendary performance at Live Aid are being released as part of the soundtrack album toBohemian Rhapsody, 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises’ record breaking feature film celebrating the band, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury. Recorded at the historic Wembley concert in July 1985, these Live Aid songs are among the rare gems and unheard versions from the band’s rich catalog. Alongside the show-stopping Live Aid performances of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Radio Ga Ga,” “Hammer To Fall” and “We Are The Champions,” the album features other rare live tracks spanningQueen’sentire career, new versions of old favorites, and a choice selection of the band’s finest studio recordings. Among them are some ofQueen’sbiggest hits, including 11 all-time greatest anthems that reached No. 1 around the world.

The 22 songs on the soundtrack wereproduced by Brian May andRoger Taylor, with engineering and co-production by long-timeQueenstudio collaboratorsJustin Shirley-Smith,Kris FredrikssonandJoshua J Macrae, andmastering by Adam Ayan and Bob Ludwig. The key task for the team behind theBohemian Rhapsodysoundtrackwas sourcing the most suitable versions of the band’s songs, especially live performances, to fit the screenplay’s career-spanning narrative. Their brief was not merely to produce a greatest hits playlist package but a soundtrack album to stand on its own merits, underscoring key moments in the screenplay. May, Taylor, and their co-producers worked with the filmmakers to find the best versions of each track to heighten the dramatic power of each scene.

Ensuring that listeners are in no doubt they are listening to a soundtrack album, Brian came up with the inspired idea thatQueenshould record their own arrangement of the famous “20th Century Fox Fanfare.” Featuring May’s famous multi-layered guitars and Taylor’s distinctive percussion, this revamped track provides a suitably flamboyant opening fanfare to both film and album. The five tracks fromQueen’s21-minute performance at Live Aid on July 13, 1985, have never been released in audio form before. They’ve only ever been featured on video as a special extra on the DVD/BluRay release ofQueen Rock Montreal, which features the Montreal Forum shows of November 1981. TheLive Aid audio is exclusive to this new soundtrack album.

Other tracks on the soundtrack have been sourced from different decades and even different continents. “Fat Bottomed Girls” comes from the 1979 Paris shows, part of the Jazz world tour, and has never been released before. “Now I’m Here” was recorded at the band’s 1975 Christmas Eve show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. And the history making duet between Freddie and Brian on “Love of My Life” comes from the Rock in Rio festival of January 1985 when 300,000 Brazilians sang along. Previously this track was only available to fans on the video releases of this performance. The three remaining songs on the soundtrack will be fresh toQueenfans, old and new. “We Will Rock You” starts out as the studio version, then seamlessly blends into a live performance with audience participation. This has been created especially for the film. “Don’t Stop Me Now” features Brian’s newly recorded guitar parts and is much closer to how the band plays the track live today.

“Doing All Right” was originally recorded bySmile, the predecessor band toQueenthat featured Brian and Roger with vocalistTim Staffell. When Tim later left, Roger and Brian would join forces with Freddie to formQueen. Freddie’s interpretation of the song is featured on the firstQueenalbum. To recreate the originalSmileversion, Brian and Roger reunited with Staffell at Abbey Road Studios to re-record “Doing All Right” for theBohemian Rhapsodysoundtrack. This session which featured Roger, Tim and Brian all singing lead vocals took place almost 50 years after the originalSmilerecording.

Features:
2LP-set specially cut at Abbey Road Studios
Produced by Brian May and Roger Taylor, with engineering and co-production by long-time Queen studio collaborators Justin Shirley-Smith, Kris Fredriksson and Joshua J Macrae
Mastering by Adam Ayan and Bob Ludwig
Featuring previously unreleased audio tracks from Queen’s legendary 1985 performance at Live Aid, new versions of old favorites, and a choice selection of the band’s finest studio recordings

LP1

1. 20th Century Fox Fanfare
2. Somebody To Love
3. Doing All Right… revisited (Performed by Smile)
4. Keep Yourself Alive (Live At The Rainbow)
5. Killer Queen
6. Fat Bottomed Girls (Live In Paris)
7. Bohemian Rhapsody
8. Now I’m Here (Live At Hammersmith Odeon)
9. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
10. Love Of My Life (Rock In Rio)

LP2

1. We Will Rock You (Movie Mix)
2. Another One Bites The Dust
3. I Want To Break Free
4. Under Pressure (Performed by Queen & David Bowie)
5. Who Wants To Live Forever
6. Bohemian Rhapsody (Live Aid)
7. Radio Ga Ga (Live Aid)
8. Ay-Oh (Live Aid)
9. Hammer To Fall (Live Aid)
10. We Are The Champions (Live Aid)
11. Don’t Stop Me Now… revisited
12. The Show Must Go On